Red hot Irish prospect Stevie ‘The Hitman’ McKenna has turned to horsepower as he gallops towards his first championship title. The undefeated super-lightweight KO king and his equally talented brother Aaron, an unbeaten super-welterweight talent, have both taken up horse riding to aid in their active recovery from arduous training sessions.Front runner McKenna features on promoter Mick Hennessy’s big bill on Friday 10th September at the Coventry Skydome Arena, headlined by Sam Eggington’s defence of his WBC Silver Middleweight Championship against undefeated French sensation Bilel Jkitou, exclusively live and free on Channel 5 in the UK and Ireland. The County Monaghan ace has shot out of the starting gates as a pro, racing to a perfect 8-0 and flattening all by knockout - with five coming in the opening round - and is in the saddle on the fast track to his first championship title. Stablemates Stevie, 24, and Aaron, 22, recently took to the Sport of Kings on their return to Ireland after the lockdown and the brothers are now regulars at the Mullaghmore Equestrian Centre at the luxury 5 Star hotel Castle Leslie in Monaghan. He said,
It started when Aaron and I came back to Ireland from America after the lockdown and we were looking for something to do at the weekends and we just hit on the idea of doing some horse riding. Back In Los Angeles we were jet skiing and shooting on our days off, we were always out and about doing some type of active recovery from our training sessions so back home in Ireland we chose horse riding and I’m glad we did
The McKennas are even eying up owning a stable of champions horses one day, but for now Stevie has got the blinkers on as he focuses on becoming World Champion. He added,
Hopefully some day we can own a few horses ourselves, but our focus right now is to become World champions first. We’re both a bit tall to be jockeys, I’m 6’ 1” and Aaron’s 6’ 2”, so we’d probably need to get a jockey in, our brother Gary is a wee bit shorter so we may use him! Watch out Paul Townend and Rachael Blackmore, in the future who knows, we might give them a run for their money!
